Just like in the movie Ghostbusters, “crossing the streams” is very dangerous! In this case I’m referring to 2 great passions, hobbies and interests. The first is Photography and the second is a more complex combination of Marine Biology, Scuba Diving and Reef Keeping. The result is a not only dangerous to the wallet, but also accounts for how I spend a vast amount of my free time.

Maintaining my 180 gallon Reeftank requires several hours a week: Feeding, cleaning (filter socks, protein skimmer), topping off RO water, water changes, and most importantly interaction and observation of the ecosystem that all those who strive to keep a microcosm in our homes!

Photography is in itself a complicated hobby. One plagued by endless options and variables and with endless amounts of subjects to capture and represent artistically.

Combining this passion my ‘in home window to the ocean’ is a trying feat. I’ve shared a lot of information with fellow ‘reefers’ and photographers and thought it would be helpful to share this with a broader audience, hoping it proves useful to others.

This is an evolving adventure, and I am still trying to figure out the optimal settings and conditions for good tank photography, but here are a few of the most useful aspects to consider:

1) Set the right white balance.
I shoot under 20K Metal Halides most of the time. That makes everything look very blue. Setting a custom White Balance in my camera helps me capture colors more accurately. Without setting a custom white balance, most of my shots are very blue and while certain programs allow for extensive editing, I think its crucial to start with a good white balanced shot.

2) Minimize water movement in tank
If you can, turn off any powerheads, closed loops, and anything else causing significant water movement. That will help you get better pictures even at slightly lower shutter speeds.

3) Make sure your lens is perpendicular to the tank.
Ensure your lens is pointing straight to the area of the aquarium you are going to take photos of. This is probably the single most important thing. It can be a little limiting in the options of where and how to shoot your photos, but any variations in the angle and which the camera is pointed at the glass/acrylic will result in refraction, giving your photos the dreaded cloudy/blurry edges.
In order to have clean crisp subjects you need to point the camera straight towards the section of the tank you’ll be shooting.

One complication arises when you are using the flash. There is a sweet spot of how much you can angle your camera without refraction, but enough so that the flash doesn’t show up in the glass (if you are using a built in flash, or even an external one). Its a matter of practice and is still a reason for an amazing photo to be totally worthless. Its one of those things that you always have to keep in mind.

4) Use a tripod and remote shutter if possible
Again, in an effort to minimize motion blurs in the photos try to take your photos using a tripod. I don’t always use one, but I get better results when I do.
Also if you can, use a remote control (wired or wireless) to shoot the photos so that your button presses don’t translate into camera shake. Also if you can make sure you stand still because even the slightest vibrations in the ground can translate into motion in the tank and in your photo.
If you don’t have a remote, another alternative is to use the timer, where the camera beeps for about 10 seconds before taking the photo. That will allow you to frame, focus, start timer and give you a chance to move away or stand still and let the camera do its magic. The down side of this technique is that you can’t really ‘capture a moment’. Its more for static shots of corals and things that don’t move much.

5) Use the right mode and settings
Depending on what lens you are using and what kind of shot you are looking for, make sure you set your camera in a mode that allows you full flexibility over the photo.
- Set your ISO as high as you comfortably can (depending on your camera model and features) before ‘noise’ is noticeable in your pictures.
- I prefer to work in my camera’s Aperture Priority setting. I set the f stop I would like, and the camera returns the right exposure time for it. Its the mode I’m most comfortable with. When I take macro shots, I set the f stop to 2.8 or similar, resulting in stunning images with very shallow depth of field and pretty fast exposures.

As you start closing up the diaphragm your exposures will take longer, and if you must you can use a flash to compensate and add some light, but I try to bounce off the flash or use indirect flash in order not to ‘wash out’ the colors too much.

Taking photos of an aquarium with the camera set to full automatic is a crap shoot. You may get a good picture here and there, but it really is hard to determine how it will shoot, where it will focus and what parameters it will choose.

Taking photos of fast swimming fish can be challenging. Every tank has its ‘poser’. In my case its the Fox Faced Rabbitfish that loves to swim up and fill my frame.

Taking good fish photos usually requires the use of a flash to capture the action.

6) Master Post Processing
This one is one of my favorites, I enjoy it almost as much as taking photos. I am struggling with this a little bit, because I can get my images to look great on my MacBookPro LCD, but on PC monitors I see that my pictures are showing a little over saturated. In addition I have found that Photobucket (which is the site I use for storage of my photos) messes a little bit with the image after its uploaded. I’m not sure if its further compressed or what exactly happens, but I notice that my local versions look slightly different.

Its key for you to manage the levels, both RGB as well as each individual channel. Cropping is also fine, assuming that you have an image that’s large enough and the focus is where you want it.

If you can, shoot your photos in RAW mode, which will allow you to set the exposure, white balance and fine tune the image after its shot, on the computer. It’s really the best way to go.

If you can’t shoot in RAW, use the highest setting on the camera and use software to edit and manage the images. You can still produce stunning results even without RAW photos, but you will need a program such as Adobe Photoshop or Elements, iPhoto or Aperture or anything that will allow you to manage the photos comprehensively.

A couple more useful pointers are:

- Try to clean the aquarium surface before your photo shoot
- Try to wear dark colors that won’t be reflected or show up on the tank
- Try to turn off as many lights around the tank and minimize light sources that could get in the photo (glares, reflections)

Lastly, remember to have fun! The beauty of Digital Photography is that film is ‘free’ and ‘reusable’ - try different settings, play around with your camera, get to know the ins and outs and you’ll start discovering what works best!

- Stumble it!

 

Filed under: Art, Great Photos, Photography, animals, aquarium